Morris Walk Estate, Woolwich (London County Council, 1962-6)

‘The London County Council’s Morris Walk Estate of 1962–6 holds a distinctive position in the history of mass housing. As Britain’s first housing estate to deploy the Larsen-Nielsen industrialized building system, which would be used extensively for the rest of the decade, it was a major step in the promulgation of technological innovation as a solution to housing shortages. Morris Walk did not simply use the system; it embraced prefabrication as a fundamental virtue, not just of construction and efficiency, but also of aesthetics. The fifteen-acre estate replaced 389 houses on terraced streets with 562 dwellings in an open array of blocks that merged into adjacent Maryon Park.’

(extract from A Survey of London, volume 48: Woolwich, English Heritage, 2012).

Its architectural history notwithstanding, the Morris Walk Estate is scheduled for demolition in the near future. This is part of a £269 million redevelopment programme with the Royal Borough of Greenwich and developer Lovell to undertake transformation of three Woolwich council estates.

The project, in partnership with asra Housing Group, will see the demolition and redevelopment of the 1,064-home Connaught, Morris Walk and Maryon Road / Grove estates and their replacement with 1,500 new mixed-tenure homes.